Some thoughts on the @mattereum litepaper. tl;dr -> Nice 👍 Limits on applicability. Creation of private jurisdictions raises issues. But we have many problematic private jurisdictions already. Why not make some useful ones? 🙌 /1 (Also my first twitter thread! Go me!)
Smart Property Registers (SPRs) look like opt-in private “jurisdiction” where disputes around title can be resolved and “exported” to the real world. If I may cite myself, it’s about “the rails”, rather than laws. thomasbarker.com/18/03/contract… /2
Simple transfers of property can already be dealt with using vanilla ⛓ (or emails) and direct contracts. No SPR needed. The problems is that capitalism needs more than that. We need to encumber property rights to have returns on capital(ism). /3
There’s precedents… The diamond industry, jstor.org/stable/724403?…, trusts that hold mineral rights, the Swiss WIR co-operatives, the London good delivery system for gold, any land registry… (I’ve seen a lease that forbade the manufacture of soft drinks in a flat!) /4
And the larger real life examples of private jurisdictions masquerading as companies… edition.cnn.com/2018/10/09/tec… nytimes.com/2013/10/13/you… Basically the SV marketplace model is the creation of SPR monopolies. No potential abusive private jurisdiction, no funding for an Uber-for-X. /5
SV is not the only problem here. The US Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems🤦♂️ -> nytimes.com/2011/03/06/bus… (DTCC seems to working okay-ish, but not physical property bloomberg.com/opinion/articl…) /6
And as @mattereum says, these things are macro important because they affect financing costs, and global trade, esp. regarding origin rules, carbon credits, etc. And I really like idea of them being transparent and mechanical. It's the only way they can scale. /7
Obviously nation state courts win if they disagree with the SPR. Enforcement is kinetic by nature, e.g. kill switches, bailiffs, waiting for police checks (Logbook loans en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logbook_l…)… But courts are slow & time is money especially for workers/small farmers/etc. /8
So SPRs depend on what courts are willing to leave alone. And the police are happy to enforce based on a quick records check (and/or there are security deposits). /9
And where exceptions to the governing smart contracts are extremely rare. And/or participants could be expected (incentivised???) to resolve variations amicably themselves. (Or non-amicably, see Black Mirror episodes of your choice 😬) /10
I expect SPRs are good for a single shared resource with many users, a pool of fungible items, or a marketplace of comparable goods. Ex. an office block that auctions its leases, so the management company can’t interfere with prices or skim revenue from the investors. /11
Or property pools, ex. Bird’s electric scouters. It’s might be more efficient for scouters to be open h/ware and for suppliers to just deliver them into cities and set them free 🐥 🐦🐦 theatlantic.com/technology/arc… (Thanks @Y_Folla for the tip. -> blog.goodaudience.com/minimum-viable…) /12
Or any giant web 2.0 marketplace where the average user wouldn’t notice the entire support staff disappearing for over 6 months 🙂 *cough* Airbnb *cough* eBay *cough* /13
I share @CleanApp’s cynicism on the Stradivarius. But I’m sympathetic to wanting a shiny example 😉 And it's a pretty impressive one! /14
It’s not the originality that’s interesting in the litepaper. These things have been tried before, and partly fell down on transparency, governance, and technology grounds. The sort of thing that having a global neutral computer is actually helpful in solving 🙌 /15 (The End)
